Twitter introduces Vine for iOS, an app for sharing six second looping videos on the service

Twitter has today introduced Vine, an app that allows you to share six second looping videos on the service and in embedded tweets. The app is simple, allowing you to tap the screen to record video and lift your finger to stop.

Chaining those clips together allows you to create short sound-optional movies that can be shared on Twitter. They play back directly inside tweets on Twitter an in the newly expanded embeds that the service offers, as seen below.

“Posts on Vine are about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger. They’re little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life,” says Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann. “They’re quirky, and we think that’s part of what makes them so special.

A Vine blog post confirms for the first time that it was acquired by Twitter. It was used by Hofmann to tweet out a 6 second clip yesterday morning. That clip was then shared by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

Twitter says that the app is for iOS only currently, but will be coming to other platforms. Currently, you are not required to have a Twitter account to use Vine, and can sign up via email. Notably, the app also still allows you to share these short videos via Facebook.

While it isn’t a direct expansion of the service to include video, Vine nonetheless represents Twitter’s interest in capturing and presenting media that can be displayed via its Cards feature. By heading off services like Instagram at the pass, Twitter is making a play for its media-heavy future. Bringing the sharing of these things back into the Twitter app fold ensures that they continue to be the place that people will visit to see the things that their friends are sharing.

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